Foundation Day in Daegu

October 3rd is Foundation Day in Korea, the day Korea was created. The story goes something like: God (which God? I don't know) came to Korea and was lonely. He wanted a wife, but there were no people, only animals. The choice was between a tiger and a bear, so God sent them both into a cave and said he would marry whichever one could live in the cave for a month eating only garlic. The tiger gave up and God turned the bear into a woman and married her. So all Koreans are the descends of bears. At least, that's what I've put together.

Anyway, Foundation Day warranted a day off from work and I used it to the fullest. I went to Daegu, a city about an hour or so out from where I am.

When I was applying for jobs, Daegu was my first choice. I heard it was a beautiful city with lots of parks and lakes and historical sites. I was not disappointed at all! I arrived with two friends at about 9am. Daegu doesn't wake up until 10 so we walked around for a while until places opened.

The first big thing we did was spend the morning and a bit of the afternoon at Dongmu park. It's a park situated around a lake in the center. There are duck boats, water and jet skiing, a butterfly garden, and a hiking path that circles the park. We spent some time skipping rocks and then made asses of ourselves motoring around in a duck boat. Someone was water skiing on the other half of the lake, and the people who run the water skiing dock kept pressing in on the duck boat territory. We'd be well within the limits for boating and the speed boat would come in hot and honking. He even did it to a family where a toddler was driving the boat! (The boats went maybe 5 miles an hour, no cause for alarm). Maybe it's some kind of turf war between the resort and the old man who owns the duck boats. After that we went to see the butterfly garden. It was actually pretty boring and had hardly nothing for butterflies, but it was free and you get what you pay for.

DUCK BOAT!

The outside of the butterfly garden. More exciting than the inside.

After that, we made for one of Daegu's historical sites- 불로동 고분군 공원 (Bullodong Tombs Park). It's an ancient burial site for people that are believed to be rulers from Daegu. They were buried a particular way in the ground and then covered in mounds of dirt that are now overgrown with grass. There are 210 mounds, scattered around the park alone or in groups, all of different sizes. The hike is similar to the hiking at the park- exercise, but nothing strenuous. Along with the mounds were chestnut trees in a few spots around the park. People were harvesting the chestnuts, which come in bright green, sharp, prickly pods. We learned how to open them and get the nuts out, eating a few but giving the rest to the Korean family that was collecting them. They probably roast and sell them on the street. At one point (started by me, of course) we climbed up one of the trees to shake the pods out. We scared an elderly couple who didn't see us at first, but then they just laughed and took a few pictures for us. We gave them some chestnuts on our way past.

This is a chestnut pod, otherwise known as an "Ow dammit, that's sharp" plant. You have to step on them, working your feet back and forth until it pops open (the spines will prick you, so you have to use a sharp tool or your shoed feet). When it pops open, there are one or two chestnuts inside. It can be tricky to pick them out, but after you do, just peel off the thin layer of skin and enjoy! I had SO MUCH fun doing this. It really is the small things, right?


We stayed until the sun started to set and then used the subway to get downtown where we had AMAZING fire grilled meat for dinner, found an Auntie Annie's pretzel shop (ate that too), and headed for the bus stop. We missed the second to last bus home due to crowding that we never expected, but made it home just fine on the last. After a taxi ride and a short walk, I was home and it was 1am. I had quite a day.

Daegu was seriously such a beautiful city. I'm still kind of bitter that I didn't get offered a job there, but (spoiler alert!) I am most likely staying in Korea another year and I can try again if I don't go big and head to Seoul. I'll leave you with two last pictures, both taken at the Tombs Park. Happy Friday, everyone!

The sun setting over the burial mounds.

The view of Daegu from the top of 불로동 고분군 공원.

My First (boring!) Chuseok!

   This past week here in Korea was a holiday called 추석- Chuseok. It's a holiday very similar to China's Mid-Autumn festival or the American/Canadian Thanksgiving. It's a holiday centered around the Autumnal Equinox to celebrate the harvest. People leave their city lives to stay with their families in the countryside. They eat traditional Korean foods and exchange gifts. Some (most? I don't have statistics on this one) will dress in traditional Korean clothing called 한복 (hanbok).

Examples of hanboks as worn by the men of the band Super Junior.

Since Chuseok follows the lunar calendar it's different every year. This year it fell in such a way as to give us a 5-day vacation. Foreigners traveled. Koreans visited their grandparents.

And I stayed behind.

This isn't a new thing for me. When I was living in England I missed Thanksgiving. Being a college student at the time, my university's International Student Office put together a Thanksgiving for the foreigners. Instead, my family had kindly shipped what they could of a Thanksgiving meal (pumpkin pie mix, which does not exist in England, for example), I bought the rest of what I could there, and celebrated by giving my English (and Italian! And Welch! And Korean!) friends their first Thanksgiving in the family setting of our friend's home. At the time, someone tried to make me feel bad for not going to the dinner put on my the office.

"They didn't have to do anything for you, you know. You can at least go." He had said. But Thanksgiving, to me, is about family, not food. Yes, I would have had a good time talking with the other foreign exchange students and stuffing my face with catered dinner for an afternoon I'd walk away from and forget. But the day spent teaching my friends who had no previous experience how to prepare Thanksgiving dinner and answering earnest questions such as "what kind of presents do you give for Thanksgiving?" remains one of my fondest memories of England.

I think when it comes down to it, I really like the meaning behind holidays more than their modern interpretation. Thanksgiving (and Chuseok!) are meant to be family holidays. So while I think it's fantastic my English uni offered a Thanksgiving meal and that here in Korea a popular foreigner bar offered a traditional Korean dinner....in both cases I ended up in a small group at home. And I don't necessarily feel badly for that. Don't get me wrong, all of my friends who went abroad or partied their lives away over this vacation deserved it. Everyone who partook in the traditional Chuseok dinner had a very precious cultural experience that's worth it's weight in gold. But for me, my satisfaction with a holiday comes from personal connection.

I spent Chuseok with my boyfriend who was unable to go home due to work. We squeezed ourselves into an over-crowded movie theater for a horror film alongside countless other celebrating families. I brought him wine. He bought me an itchy sweater (that I love dearly because he knew just what color to pick). I cooked a (non-Korean) dinner that was heavy in honor of the gluttony Thanksgiving celebrators love to flourish in. We curled up close and watched some TV and read together. Later on, when work called him away, I joined some friends for some games at one of their houses. I spent all of Chuseok this way- at various friends' houses or stealing free moments with the boyfriend to have dinner or play darts at the bar or study at a cafe. Nothing any more ambitious than I would get up to on a typical weekend, but definitely good ways to spend free time.

I can't wait to hear all about the amazing things my friends who traveled this Chuseok did and saw and experienced. But I'm also going to go to bed tonight content that I just had a wonderful, low-stress, low-cost 5 days. And while I can't wait for the chance to travel to Japan, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the rest of Europe, and Africa? I'm not sorry I didn't see one of those places this vacation.

I was busy with my family :)

The Communal Society That Plagiarizes Together, Stays Together

When I was in college, I took a Science Fiction Literature class. The course was reading-heavy and the only grades you would receive were on pop quizzes based on the reading homework. Each student was given a black/blue pen to take the quiz and a red pen to correct it after. I did fairly well, but was always confused why my classmates got perfect scores. At the end of the semester, complaining about the B+ I earned fair and square, my roommate looked shocked to find out I hadn't realized her and everyone else in class had merely switched the inkwells in the pens and were writing down the answers as he gave them during correction time.

"You were stupid." Said one of my 5th grade students, YJ, when I shared that story today during a writing class on plagiarism.

"What do you mean I was stupid?" I ask him as he laughs his evil little boy laugh. "I was honest!"

"Everybody plagiarizes so it's just...whatever." Says SJ when the class material turned to talking about the lack of punishment for plagiarism in a fictionalized school created for the sake of their workbooks.

"What do you mean everyone?" I ask

"Well, we are 5th grade, right?" YJ confirms. "So you go on Naver, type in our class grade and class number...and we can find all of our textbook answers."

"All of them?"

"Yes!" All 8 of my "angels" cry.

"Do your teachers know about this?"

"Of course!"

"What do they do about it?"

"Nothing," SJ answers with a shrug. "It's good for us. We all have to have the same answers."

The final consensus was that they all had to be perfect in school, so plagiarism was the only option. You have to have the right answers in your textbook to study to get the right answers on the test? Just go online and download them. Summer vacation reading homework? The internet has that, too! Right on Kakao Story, a popular game app, my students show me how they can download all of the information on the books they have to read and the journals they have to write.

"Research papers, too. Just copy paste." YJ adds, talking about a friend who handed in a term paper of completely plagiarized work. No one checked and he was never caught. He "earned" that 100 he'd have to get or else his parents would beat him.

__ __ __

I don't really know how to express my feelings after that conversation. Disappointed? Sad? Sanctioned plagiarism? Am I really living among a culture that cares SO MUCH for group-think and "we over I" that plagiarism is okay? Apparently so.

One of my biggest hurdles living in Korea is that people here are socially trained to always think of the group first. There is nothing worse than "embarrassment" or "loss of face" here. In juxtaposition to my own culture where individuality is encouraged, people are forced through their school years to fit into the same box for the rest of their lives.

It's not that I have a problem with communal culture. I find a lot of aspects of the culture I live in really great. Nothing makes me happier than when I see students pooling together their money between classes to buy a snack to share, or when two of my middle school boys will be sat in a hug with one sitting on the other and no one is worried they'll be called "gay" (as if that's an insult).

I have a problem with the paradoxical nature this lifestyle breeds. Everyone has to be the same so they all plagiarize off of someone who did the work who knows how long ago and posted on the internet. Okay. And then a teacher runs their paper through a scanning software and they get caught and punished for plagiarizing. Embarrassment is like being a leper here- what is more embarrassing than being caught not being able to do your own work so you copy?! I caught this particular class copying off of one student who did my homework and they were all instantly near tears when they knew that I knew they had done it.

I suppose it logically makes sense in a culture that puts such emphasis on the whole group people would turn to doing everything together. I see it in my first graders bouncing about my classroom making sure everyone found their words in the word search so no one is left embarrassed and frustrated. I see it in my elementary schoolers looking at their desk partner's book throughout class to fix their own answers. And I definitely see it in my middle schoolers who will wait until one student answers a question so the rest can all agree that they had the same answer. But at the same time, by the time they get into high school the lifestyle is to not share notes and do everything you can to get the highest score in class so you can get to college. Maybe this lack of cultural consistency is the reason myself and other foreigners have so much trouble in their workplaces. We ask for consistency with work, but they can't provide it because their culture isn't consistent.

Or maybe I'm horrible wrong and making no sense right now. Either way, it's wrong to plagiarize and you can bet my kids will get in trouble for doing it.

The Ocean Fixes All Things

It's strange that I've now officially lived halfway through my contracted time in Korea. I say strange mostly because, regardless of all the photos and posters on my walls, the contacts in my cell phone, the frequent buyer cards stuffing my wallet, and my ability to get pretty much anywhere in the country by myself without getting lost...I still don't feel like I live here in the sense of belonging.

I'm still confused by the fact that all children and more than half of the adults I meet can understand me when I speak to them in Korean, but as soon as I try to do something important, the pharmacist/cell phone contractor/ticket vendor can't understand me.

I don't understand how one day my coworker can wear a dress made for a runway to work one day and wear booty shorts and a printed t-shirt the next...and both of those things are considered "business casual" while I'm called "unprofessional for wearing leggings and knee-length dresses.

In any case, all of that was forgotten during yesterday's trip to Busan to spend the day at the beach. My closest friends, my boyfriend, and I piled into a car and drove out earlyish in the morning, only to find out that, since there were actually waves at the beach that day no one was allowed to swim. This didn't sit well with us, and we soon started playing a 5-person rock-paper-scissors game where the loser had to inch closer to the water. The end-game would not be when the lifeguard blew his whistle, but when he finally got so mad he came in person to yell at whoever was in the water. Somehow, after an hour or so of this game, it became okay for everyone to go swimming. Our game of Ocean Chicken turned into body surfing.

A calm fell over everything as we played in the ocean. We laughed as ourselves or our friends were dragged under and into the water by the current or were washed up on shore with bathing suits full of sand and rock scratches on our skin. We chased each other, dunked each other, lost a beer forever to the salty water, and played ourselves exhausted.

Then, we dug a whole and played a game of 31 Flavors to decide who we'd bury in it (spoiler alert: it was me), and did the whole tide game again.

We spent hours at the ocean before the last of us got tired and all of us were hungry. We showered, changed, walked to The Wolfhound (our favorite Irish Pub, although the service isn't as kind to one of us as it is to the rest) for dinner, and as I destroyed my boyfriend in a game of darts (beginners luck, I'm sure) I came to the realization that maybe I do belong here.

Six months in Korea and I no longer refuse to shower after swimming in the ocean because the showers are hidden by curtains and you stand completely exposed to anyone else who steps up to the long pipe you turn a breaker on to shoot water at you. Six months and I can read the roadsigns from home to Busan and back and know where we are and which way we're going.

At the end of the day, with my washer making that "I'm gonna break and it's gonna be terrible" noise as it washes our beach gear, I stepped out of yet another shower in my comfy pajamas and see my boyfriend on the floor, eating 파닭 (boneless fried chicken in sauce, covered in green onion) from the box, drinking a beer and watching a TV older than I am. I stop and think another six months of this wouldn't be so bad at all. Maybe another six years of this would be okay, too.

The ocean is magic.

Korea Ink

I don't know all the specifics, but I guess tattoos are illegal in Korea? I don't mean, "Hey! That guy has a tattoo, let's arrest him!" illegal, but apparently you aren't allowed to give someone a tattoo unless you have a medical license. At least that's the information I've found on the internet, and we know that the internet NEVER lies! I'm sure somewhere down the line men were using tattoos to get out of military service and it ruined the fun for everyone.

Well, in any case, I got one. Enough friends here have mentioned places in Seoul where people run legitimate tattoo parlors and the tattooists have their medical degrees or whatever, but that just wouldn't be fun, would it? I'm still young and stupid- why not find some underground place to get a tattoo? After all, I've seen tons of legal tattoo parlors. Sometimes you just have to have an experience, right? Why not go to a secret tattoo parlor?

A friend found out about a man not too far from our town who ran a tattoo studio out of his apartment. He has a long list of impressive credentials and we figured a consultation and a good look around his studio couldn't hurt. He was friendly, professional, and most importantly- he had an extremely clean work space. We decided to go for it. I've wanted wings tattooed on my back for a very long time. No special reason, I just felt like I needed to have a pair of wings. And why shouldn't I? So we scheduled our appointments and waited.

Cue appointment day!

Our appointment started mid-morning. We had to be on the bus by 7:30. I insisted on wearing comfortable clothes so I could nap. After a long bus ride, we had an almost longer subway ride, and then a short taxi ride to the studio. My friend went first, it being his first tattoo and a quick one. And then me. I think somewhere along the line your body convinces you that getting a tattoo didn't hurt as much as you thought it did. Because I do not remember my other tattoos hurting this much. After three hours I ended up with something unfinished that looked a bit like this:

Then came a week of having people help me keep it moisturized and complaining as the Vaseline and Lubriderm stained the backs of all of my shirts. I even woke up to my wings printed on my pillow one morning. But just when the last stage of healing (the itchy stage) began, I was due to go back to finish what I started (Even though it hurt and I didn't want to)

In the end I got this:

The tape and plastic wrap is meant to keep all the awesome in :)

When I was finished, the artist called me a strong woman, let me take a nap on his couch while he worked on my friend's tattoo, and that was that. We had our black market tattoo experience. Well, my friend still has one more session to go because he's done experiencing, but no pain, no gain! ;)

I have to say I'm quite proud of myself. I think he did beautiful work. The artist has spent more than 20 years traveling around the East and West as a professional tattoo artist. It's kind of an honor to me to have work done by someone who obviously cares very much about what he does. And I'm very glad to work in a place where tattoos aren't a big deal because my wings like to peek through some of my thinner shirts and give my kids a nice surprise.

Until next time!

My Day Trip With Jack the Ripper

I learned long ago that if I wanted to get any sort of life satisfaction in Korea that I wasn't going to get it from my job. Don't get me wrong, I love being a teacher and talking with other teachers here makes me realize I have a bunch of the best kids around, but for someone who emigrated for the purpose of working a job with a fantastic contract and promises of great experiences....well, the satisfaction is kind of lacking. So I decided to keep myself as busy as possible until next year when I'll be at a new school that might not suck as much horse anus as my current one does. I've dedicated myself to hapkido and studying Korean, and I've decided I will travel as much and far as I can in the very little time away from the office I get.

Back in April I wrote about being woken up at butt o'clock in the morning, ushered into a van, and driven all the way across the country for some 4 hour seminar. It was on that most unfortunate trip that I found a very special bus. The entire side of the bus was decked out in an advertisement for "Jack The Ripper- The Musical" and painted larger than life in one of the lead roles was Lee Sungmin, one of the members of a band here called Super Junior (They're pretty popular back home as well, and I have seen them perform in New York).

I had to go.

So as soon as I got home (at balls o'clock at night this time), I hit the internet. I searched for dates Sungmin would be performing (he shares the lead role with 3 other actors). I wanted decent seats. It had to be a weekend. Finally I found a ticket for Sunday, 4th row center and quickly ate it up. Then promptly realized I had no idea how to get back to Seoul, how to get to the venue, or how to get home when it was all said and done. Long story short, it got settled with the help of a friend, and I was all set to take a bus that would let me off no more than 1 subway stop and a 3 minute walk away from the show.....all I had to do was wait for June 23rd and I was golden...

And then I went and missed the bus.

In a panic, I got a rush ticket for the next bus to Seoul. Now, the show was in a place called Seongnam, which is in Seoul but really far from the center. I wouldn't know until the bus arrived what part of Seoul I was being dropped off in. I had never taken the subway. So when I got dropped off in Gangnam, I ran to the first old lady I found and asked for help. People understand my Korean much more easily in Seoul- I don't know if it's the fact that I learn standard Korean and they speak a country dialect where I live, or if they just expect to see more foreigners who speak Korean and can talk with them. Whatever the reason, the lady and I understood each other and she told me I picked the right subway, nodded at me when my stop came, and pointed at a list of transfers so I knew I wasn't done traveling yet. 10 more stops on the second subway and I arrived. I couldn't help but feel a little proud of myself. Except for apparently buying the wrong kind of subway pass and regrettably having to do a little elbow-throwing through the turnstile in Seongnam (>.>....) I made it to the Art Center with a half hour until showtime.

They were pretty clear on their no-picture policy, and I kind of stand out with three feet of blonde hair in a sea full of Koreans, so I didn't get any pictures of the show, but I did get a nice shot of the Art Center's Opera House flying the colors on my way up the hill to the show.

The show was FANTASTIC! Of course my initial interest was Lee Sungmin (and my unhealthy fascination with serial killers...), but even if I had gone on a night he wasn't performing I would have been just as happy. The guy who played Jack really stole the show for me. And the two female leads were SUPER talented and really beautiful. There wasn't a single performer who didn't give 200%. It went by so fast.

After the show I met a hapkido friend from home who had to go to training in Seoul for the weekend, we got some dinner and the bus home, taxied together from the bus terminal, played with my kitten, parted ways, and saw each other again less than 4 hours later for double-combo Hapkido/Korean practice- the Exhausted! edition.

To sum all of this rambling up, for one day I lived the life I've always wanted here in Korea. My town isn't all that bad, but there is nothing to do unless you bus out at least 20 minutes. I turned down positions in Seoul because I wanted to start off getting the realest idea of Korea. Seoul is Korea of course, but definitely the most Westernized part of it. I think I'm learning more Korean and more traditional culture here living in the backwoods where not many foreigners have dared to live. But I also wanted to have new experiences, not just get stared at by people as I walk around town for a lack of anything else to do. I want to see art and plays and concerts and festivals. That's something I've really missed out on. And after being stuck working 2 to 10 every day with my nose pressed to the grindstone for a boss who you can smell talking and who appreciates nothing? Jack the Ripper was welcome company.

A Busy Blogger Is A Blogless Blogger!

To say these past couple weeks have been busy would be a HUGE understatement, which means two things:
     1. I neglected to blog.
     2. I have SO MUCH to tell you.

Let's start from the top. May 17th was a national holiday here in Korea- Buddha's birthday. Since I had the day off from work I decided that I would go to a nearby temple to see what was going on. It's a small temple, but very beautiful and it was full of people when I arrived around noon to see what was going on. I was quickly noticed being the only foreigner in the bunch, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. Someone took me by the arm and showed me the proper way to pray to the shrine in the side hall and then had me join them for free lunch at the temple. They served a dish called bibimbap, meaning mixed rice. Bibimbap is one of my favorites here, but at temples it is a bit different. Since followers of Buddha don't eat meat it was solely vegetarian as opposed to the beef and chicken and ham thrown in that I'm used to. But it was still DELICIOUS.

This is a picture of the shrine a really kind temple-goer showed me how to pray to.

Lanterns strung up for Buddha in the square of my favorite shopping district.

The weekend after Buddha's birthday was my Hapkido competition. Boy was I surprised to find out it was a national competition instead of just regional. We woke up really early, put on our uniforms, and drove to the competition about 45 minutes away. My Master teaches twice a day- a morning class and a night class, so he entered us as two teams instead of trying to find time for us to practice together to enter as one.I have to say that my team really gave it their all. Maybe we were just excited by the wide space we had to perform in, and the music, and all of the other teams in their various uniforms, but by some luck of the draw my team took home SILVER. Can you believe it?! I've been studying Hapkido for 3 months and am already a part of a national silver-medal winning team. It was such a wonderful surprise and I can't begin to say how thankful I am to be a part of the team. You really did it, guys! Let's take gold next year, okay?

Both of our school's teams with our Master, taken just after we finished performing.

After competition I thought things would cool down, but my life is crazy so OF COURSE something else happened.

One of my Korean friends called me out of the blue one evening as I'm getting ready to meet a friend for dinner.

"I found a kitten," He tells me. "I can't keep it. Can you help me?"

I am not really a cat person, but for some reason I really wanted to help. I agree and we meet up for him to pass off the cat...

...and to my surprise the "kitten" was actually one a couple days old, still with an umbilical cord and with it's eyes and ears still closed.

"He has to be fed every four hours," my friend tells me. "Keep him warm, and make sure you help him use the bathroom. He can't go by himself."

I brought the cat to the vet as soon as I could, and he didn't seem very optimistic about my little guy's chances of survival but I wouldn't give up on him. I brought him to work, I kept him in towels with hot water bottles, I fed him with a syringe every 2-4 hours as much as I could get him to eat. But he wasn't gaining weight, he wasn't staying warm. I did everything I could for him....

And two weeks later, I now have a loud, obnoxious, wide-blue-eyed, three week old tabby kitten! In the time I was bringing him to school my students argued over what his name should be.

"김치만두! (kimchi mandu-kimchi dumplings)"  " 호랑이 (horangi- tiger)" "노숙자 (nosookja- homeless)"

Finally, the vet and I decided on the name 호범 (Hobum). Hobum is a Korean male name. I pick the Ho from horangi (tiger) and bum is a common name ending, but I later found out it also means tiger if you use the ancient word for tiger. So I guess his name is TigerTiger. I usually just call him Bummie. He's doing SO WELL now and I can't wait to bring him to the vet for his 7 week shots to really show off what a good job I did with him.

Most recent picture of my little man, looking guilty as I caught him trying to claw his way out of his box.

Annnnnd that is why I haven't been blogging lately. Currently I've got my cat on my hip, my computer on my lap, a book nearby, and some Oreos. Time to de-stress before another work-week starts.

Drinks At The Boiling Point, A Love Confession, And What Really Matters

It was bound to happen, and since I have The Worst Luck In The World, it happened to me. All of the tenseness and irritants and complaints at work finally boiled over and resulted in my boss having a one-sided screaming match at me. But this blog was never meant to be a place for me to complain about her rotten kimchi breath, 70s haircut, or bad business management skills (backhanded much? :)) so instead I'll focus on all of the good that resulted in her losing her cool.

My school staff held a meeting after World War: Director's Office went down and the final result was that we all realized none of us has a problem with anyone else and we're going to start showing it instead of appreciating in silence. This resulted in me attending my first 회식 (hweshik) Friday night. A 회식 is a company outing after work that's mandatory unless you have a REALLY good reason to skip out and involves lots of alcohol about 100% of the time. We took it easy on our livers and only had a couple toasts and played a drinking game over dinner, so we left happy but mostly coherent.

The strange thing is, even though it was business as usual this morning, it just felt different to be in the office with my coworkers again. Maybe Koreans are onto something with this whole getting-embarrassingly-drunk-in-front-of-your-peers-so-you-have-no-choice-but-to-get-along thing. At the very least it's going to make things more palatable for as long as I have to work for The Director.

Even better than the new camaraderie with my coworkers was the change in my students after World War: Director's Office . The meeting about her behavior afterwards caused me to miss one of my classes- my absolute FAVORITE class (seven 8/9-year-old boys). One of my Korean coworkers covered for me, but when the bell rang they had had enough and STORMED the office calling my name. Having missed me for even one class was enough for the students to realize something was wrong and, like my coworkers did by proposing a 회식, my kids decided to show their appreciation for me too. One boy, who I've talked about a ton here (SW) even confessed his love for me. He drew a picture on the board of him eating my hair surrounded by hearts, gave me a pokemon card, and has made numerous attempts at kissing me which I most impolitely declined. Kid's resilient though.

It was really nice to feel so appreciated by my boys after being railed for an hour and forty-five minutes about how I'm too young to be a good teacher, I'm unprofessional, I don't deserve any respect, etc. I was so angry the few days leading up to this past weekend, but sitting at my desk crowded by more children than I ever wanted to know in my whole life while they touch my face, play with my hair, or utter some semblance of English noise in an attempt at conversation before they just laugh and say "쌤 (teacher)" made me realize that it really doesn't matter what my boss thinks of me. My coworkers like me enough. My students like me enough. And I like them in return. My kids are doing their work, mostly trying their hardest to not be total messes in my class (and my GOD are some of my kids messes xD), and it seems to me that that should be what really counts to a "professional teacher deserving respect".

So I won't make this blog about my horrid Director and her total and complete ineptitude. Because it doesn't matter. SHE doesn't matter. What matters are the 26 classes full of students I work with every week; my wonderful coworkers who work so hard for so little and are still always good-natured about it.; the lazy basketball games I play with my friends on Sunday afternoons; the extra hapkido training for upcoming competition; and a little boy who loves his teacher so much he eats her hair and gives her pokemon cards. But still won't really do classwork without being threatened.

Hey, even 8-year-old boy love has its limits.

If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say...

...say it in English so no one else understands you.

I openly admit to being the worst kind of person. Well, okay I'm not really a bad person I'm just...frank. This has earned me both titles of "refreshing" and "bitch". I say I'm just honest. What is a frankly honest person do to but fully utilize her foreign skills to say whatever she wants whenever she wants it?

I know that a big fear xenophobes have is that foreigners are talking about them in their native language. Well, who cares? Does it honestly hurt anyone if someone has a little laugh because your shoe is untied? I know enough Korean to know that people have talked about me while looking me in the eye and I promise the world didn't end.

So for that reason I felt no guilt spending Saturday night saying whatever I wanted wherever I wanted while out in public in mixed company. I was with a new foreign friend who shares my unfortunate sense of humor and bold realism, what else were we to do?

It started while waiting for some friends outside of a movie theater. Just across from us leaning against a cement wall was a Korean guy in skinny jeans, a leather jacket, shaggy auburn hair, just slouching. He looked 16 which I've learned means he's probably about 25. We waited for our friends for a hours (they were heading up from a day trip out into the city and weren't sure when they'd arrive), and in that time this guy just paced the corner and every time a pair of long haired girls walked by, he'd go up and talk to them, they'd blow him off, and he'd scuff his feet and look down with his hands his pockets, but ultimately move on with his life and wait for the next pair.

"Korean Aladdin at 6 o'clock." Says my friend.

"Ah, no way. He's totally a drug pusher." Say I.

"Or an organ harvester. Less likely, but more intense."

Korean Aladdin paced our shared block for two hours, never dropping his game. And for two foreigners stuck waiting for friends, creating his increasingly more detailed back story became the best game we had ever heard of. Would we have done it back home if it were an American guy? Most likely. But there's something very great and terrible in "getting away with" saying whatever you want.

No naturally this game continued over pizza in a window booth at a second story pizza joint.

The best part of the night was when a couple walked by below and the woman, who was wearing stupid heels, stepped onto a grated sewer cover. Her pointy stiletto went right through the hole and she fell to the pavement. Her boyfriend/husband fell all over himself to help her- took her bag, helped her stand, brushed her off. Even my friend and I had nothing snide to say, we were both worried she had broken an ankle. But then it happened.

While embracing his injured and embarrassed partner, the man looked up, saw us looking down, pointed, and proceeded to grin and then LAUGH. And then we laughed back. And she knew nothing about it (I can only assume he was laughing silently).

I have nothing inspired to say about knowing a foreign language and the verbal freedom it gives you. I'm sure there are volumes on the benefits of multilingualism: what it does for your brain, for your cultural awareness, for your ability to connect with people. All the science is there. But all I use it for is to point out when someone has a bad perm or a camel toe.

So the moral of the story is yes, xenophobes, foreigners ARE talking about you right to your face. But you're talking about them, too. And fair is fair. So just enjoy.

And I guess falling is universally funny.

And don't wear heels. Ever.

An Interesting Hell or A Boring Kingdom

My life as an English teacher in Korea would be perfect if I wasn't an English teacher.

That sounds wrong, so let's be more specific.

I hate my school? Does that sound fair? No? Too bad. (Great- now I'm talking to myself.) Anyway, things haven't improved in the office. As always, management is completely inept and infuriatingly clueless. As always, my co-workers and I all laugh and leave on breaks to eat together, and slowly grind our teeth away to stumps and watch as our hair turns grey and our foreheads wrinkle.

But really I think that's all part of the experience here.

Would I appreciate just standing through a 45-minute bus ride next to a business man in a slightly rumpled suit who smelled strongly of kimchi and fish market if it wasn't for the fact that my Head Teacher is constantly waiting until AFTER the class bell rings to tell me plans have changed and making me bend over backwards while running to make it look like she can run a functioning teaching staff?

Would I laugh as hard speaking in broken Japanese in a Korean class with my deskmate to fill in the Korean words we didn't know ("tanjoubi?" "saengil"; "tomodatchi?" "chingu") if it wasn't for the fact that no one understands me ever and we might as well all be speaking our own dialect of Japano-Engli-rean because language is funny and language barriers are almost unconquerable?

Would finally finding a music store and running my fangirly hands over every SHINee album they have been so satisfying if I hadn't moved to a rural place completely devoid of the Kpop sub-culture?

No, of course not. Not at all.

My Sabunim (hapkido instructor) is a very wise man. In language class today he told me a famous Korean writer once said, "Korea is an interesting Hell. But Australia is a boring Kingdom." And all things said and done, I like my Hell. I like watching the ridiculousness of drunken ahjusshi trying to walk straight lines home after a Wednesday night of beer, cigarettes, and women who they probably aren't married to. I like being able to do things like plug in a massage chair at Lottemart, take my shoes off, and have a nice nap for 20 minutes because no one will come up to me and tell me not to. I like sharing food with my students. Running across 5-lane highways to catch the last bus home. When my Korean text messaging service talks to me in Obama's voice. Poorly subtitled Western movies. Poorly spelled/translated/written English on things people display proudly on t-shirts, bags, tattoos, etc. I like that when people see me on the street from second story cafes they don't just wave, but sway their whole body like a tree in the breeze to get my attention.

So instead of stressing out I'll push the burning brimstone off of my desk, listen to SHINee, drink a coke (which is apparently called "cock" here- as in "you really like to drink cock." or "cock is your life"), and watch the sparks fly.

Sleep Jesus And A Trip To Seoul

Remember those magical times in school when you had "The Most Important Test Ever" coming up and you'd get really angry at your teachers for still pushing you in class and giving you homework because you KNOW they know you have "The Most Important Test Ever" coming up?

I'm not so old that I've forgotten what a National Exam feels like (Shout out to everyone in NY who had to suffer through the TONYSS and REGENTS for 13 years- what what!!). Maybe I'm too soft a teacher. Maybe I'm a push-over. For whatever reason, I spent the last week going kind of easy on my older classes who have exams coming up. We get through the lesson quickly and I give them some time to unwind with a game or study. Normally my older students are reserved in class. It's hard to get them to participate, they're too tired and hungry to want to play along with you. So I was surprised at how much my normally stoic group of teenagers shared with me just by letting them play a game of cards.

"My friend is Sleep Jesus." Says one of my boys completely out of the blue.

"Sweet Jesus?"

"아니아니 (no no). SLEEP Jesus."

"I don't know what that is."

"He knows all the best ways to sleep during class without teacher knowing. Want to see?"

"Sure." My student then shows me no less than half a dozen positions that make it look like he is totally captivated by his work, then emphasizes the fact that his eyes are closed. If he hadn't told me he would be pretending to sleep I'd never know it! I laughed at the time and told him about ring tones that old (read: Teacher) ears can't hear. Then the other boy in class showed me a magic trick and we are henceforth and forevermore bros just by sharing a bit of classroom trickery. Little did I know that Sleep Jesus would become my savior as well...

Saturday I was woken up at 7:00 and told to get in the school van. We had an impromptu workshop for our school franchise, located conveniently in Seoul four hours away. I spent the four hours having a long, hard grump over losing my weekend to work. On the bright side of things, I literally drove from one end of the country to the other for free. Lots of sight-seeing even if the weather was crazy-varied from province to province. My own town is averaging about 70-75 degrees now. We ended up in Seoul a whole 15 degrees colder. Brrrrr.

At one point we drove through a snow storm. But only for about a half hour. Crazy weather...

We stopped on the way there at a rest stop for some food. My co-workers indulged in some greasy street food before we ate, but with me not having a gallbladder and wanting to shape up before my Hapkido competition next month, I held off for a proper meal.

Two of my coworkers getting their eat on street-style.

                  

Not a bad layout for a gas station, right?

 We get dropped off at the university our workshop is being held at and filtered into an auditorium with tons of other foreigners who work at any one of the other 400 schools in my franchise. I look at the speakers lined up with their fake smiles and condescending power points. No, I don't need to learn how to get a visa- I've had one for three months. Yes, Korean culture is "weird". Oh, you mean the school system is different here? Wow! Cue Sleep Jesus. Laughing a little bit to myself, I slipped my tablet on the table and employed the most effective of Sleep Jesus' tactics. I felt a bit immature sitting in a teaching workshop while texting, napping, and playing on Facebook but we'll call it my Testimonial after being woken and carted and cold all day.

And by the time the first speaker was finished, I definitely wasn't the only one praying to Sleep Jesus.

Amen.

Happy Singles Awareness Days! (No. Really.)

If I told you I've been busy on dates would you forgive me for not posting a blog last week? Actually, my dates are what prompted this week's entry! No, you're not going to get any of the details here (that's what Skype and e-mail is for, muahahaha!). Korea has about three times as many love holidays as we do in the States, so let's talk about them

April 14th is Black Day here in Korea, which is basically Singles Awareness Day. If you're single on April 14th you go out and eat 짜장면 (Jjajangmyeon). 짜장면 is a noodle dish with a black sauce- hence the name Black Day. I went out with a guy friend today in search of some of the noodles (explain celebrating a single's day with a guy, anyone? haha) in the celebratory spirit except we couldn't find any. We settled on some spicy udon with some seafood mixed in instead with a side of california rolls, which honestly probably tasted a lot better than black bean sauce and noodles would.

 Our Black Day feast! Thanks for the good company and good food, Moonsung!










Working backwards, the lover's holiday before Black Day is called White Day. On White Day (March 14th) boys will give candy to the special ladies in their lives. Since I'm a teacher, all I've seen of White Day is the standard "bring some for everyone in the class" kind of celebration, but I assume it can be made a little bit special for couples, right? I believe I posted about the White Day candy I was given by one of my students last month.

Then of course there is Valentine's Day, February 14th. Valentine's Day is the typical consumerist propaganda, chocolate and card company money scheme that we know and love back in the States- but there's one difference. Valentine's Day is only for girls to give chocolates to boys. It's a good way for 12-year-old girls to confess their little crushes on classmates, but I haven't heard of adults celebrating it with any seriousness.

I suppose lover's holidays are such a big deal in South Korea because they're a socially sanctioned escape from the general conservatism that frowns on PDA. I'm almost certain he was joking, but someone explained to me that it works like this: On Valentine's Day a girl gives a boy chocolates. He doesn't like her so on White Day he doesn't return the favor. Then she's so upset about it she goes out and eats 짜장면 (a whole month later, riiiiiight).

Happy Singles Awareness Days, everyone!

Korean Students Say And Do The Darnedest Things

I'm convinced that whoever started that rumor that Asian children are polite, studious, and dedicated either never met an Asian student or was a bold-faced liar.

That isn't to say I don't have GOOD students, because I do. There's just...some taming involved. From what I've observed my Korean co-teachers tame via fear and punishment. This does not work for me for a few reasons:
      1. I can't muster a stern face to save my life.
      2. Half of students are taller than me. (Speaking of rumor-starters- short Asians? Not in my Asia...)

and the biggest reason:

      3. I am FAR too amused by the evil things my students say and do to even think about punishing them. So, in honor of my students' willful spirits and my lack of classroom management skills, here's a collection of some of the more precious moments I've shared with my little angels (many of which concerning a student we'll call SW as he is particularly angelic):

~ I have tattoos, one of which being very visible as it's on my wrist. This isn't a problem, despite what you might hear about the tattoo stereotyping in this part of the world. If anything, my students from ages 6 to 16 are politely curious. That is, except for SW. The first day my tattoo was exposed to SW's class, I knew it had happened because SW jumped out of his seat into some semblance of a martial arts ready-stance and yelled, "You a gangstuh, baby, c'mon man FIGHT!" Some version of this phrase has been his special greeting for me every since. It's been weeks.





~  "Teachuh, what time o'clock it is?"

~ "Hey teacher?"
   "Yes?"
   "Ah, no. No." (Repeated at least 10 times a class. One of my boys LOVES this game. And he always wins.)

~"Teacher, 똥 (Ddong) spelling in English what?"
  "...-sigh- It's poop." (This is almost always followed by asking about "방구" (bangu- fart))

~ Me: -Taking attendance- Oh, where is [student] today?
   Entire class: [student] IS DIE!
   Me: I had to ask.

~ While going over the rules in SW's class, I felt guilty for giving such young kids so many restrictions (I no longer feel bad for this, so don't worry). Trying to lighten up the mood, and knowing a student had farted in class the first day and the kids still laughed about it I added:

   Me: If anyone gas? Whole class detention!
  SW: -Promptly stands up, winks, slaps his ass, and gives me a thumbs up.-

~ Student (age: 16): -Walks into the Teachers' Office- N~~~~ Teacher, you are very pretty.
   Me: 헐? (Hull. Kind of the Korean equivalent to "whatever" or "What'chu say?!")
   Student: I didn't do my homework. You have three options. You can accept. You can let me e-mail you my homework tonight. Third is you can give me detention. But if I'm detention, can't send my homework. Oh! -Hands me a chocolate-
   Me: . . .You could have done your homework in the time it took you to buy this candy and look up how to say what you just said to me on Naver (similar to google).
   Student: Yeah....Yeah, I know.

~Me: Okay, class. The word is "Mother". Who can make a sentence using the word "Mother"? (Note: we repeat these sentences as a class then write them on the board- they're 8-10 years old.)
   SW: TEACHUH, ME!
   Me: ohgod...SW. Tell us about "Mother".
   SW: Tch. My Mother very very lazy!

~And last but not least, something cute. In SW's class is a kid I always call Tiger. He's a polite, shy little 10-year-old and always good to have in class. About two weeks into the semester I get a new student in the class- a boy who chose to go by the English name Ryan. One of my students, SN, raises his hand and dances in his seat, SO excited to tell me something. And when I call on him, he proudly points out to the me:

   "TEACHUH, TEACHUH- Tiger and LION!"

Yeah, I had to sit down for a minute. But good-natured SN laughed with me.

So that's a little taste of what I deal with 8 hours a day.

                           ~N.

Rural Korean Entertainment

Sorry this post is coming a few hours late- I was busy with some Korean homework and totally forgot! I know, I know. No excuses.

This week I'll write a little bit about how I entertain myself on weekends here. We'll use his past weekend as an example. Now keep in mind I am a whole world away from Seoul, so all of those fun/wacky/crazy/exciting things you may have heard about Korean don't always apply here. Or ever apply, really. At all.

For starters, there's a bowling alley right by my house. Only you'd never know it because it's on the 7th floor of a high-rise. I've never heard of a bowling alley being on anything other than the ground floor, but it's not a bad place to hang out. I met a group of six other people there, each of us chipping in $10 for three games and shoe rental. The most fun in the bowling alley is watching all of the wanna-be pro-bowlers play. They come in with odd gloves that go clear up their forearm, uniforms (no two people have the same uniform), and custom balls. Once, a guy even used the ball rack for our section to stretch his legs. But who knows? Maybe Korean bowling is different and more taxing on your body (Hint: It's not different at all).

After that, we moved on to the Korean chain pizza restaurant Mr. Pizza. I haven't eaten out anything other than Korean food since I've arrived so this was a welcome new experience.  I was surprised the pizza was actually good- even though Koreans apparently put corn on their pizza. But whatever, don't knock it. It's pizza.

When it becomes evening proper it's acceptable to hit up the local foreigner bar- All That Jazz. It is as it sounds- a bar for foreigners. Drinks are decent, company's decent, Jazz is usually a pretty safe choice if you want to have a good time. You can find a nice spot in the back, order some drinks, and listen to the live entertainment while relaxing on the couches. And if you get the itch to perform a little yourself, you can move on to next natural progression of things- 노래방 (noraebang- karaoke).

Karaoke in Korea is quite interesting. First, your party is put into a private room. Second, you get an irresponsible excess of alcohol and 안주 (anju- side dishes (think beer nuts, only things are more Koreanized like squid rings and dried seaweed). There's a book a good 5 inches thick of songs to sing (Korean-English-Japanese-Chinese, pick your poison). And you pay for half hour sessions. Now, the last time I went out we ended the night at noraebang (at 7am, but still!), but this time it was still early enough that some people felt the need to go back to Jazz. So we went.

Jazz: Part 2 consisted of me meeting my first Korean person I've ever seen there (aside from the owner). He was a nice guy, dressed too young for his age but he was just looking for a good time so we'll give the man a break. I small talked a bit in Korean with him (name, age, where are you from, etc). He took my hand in both of his, kissed it, and bought me a beer. And then he employed a concept I've NEVER seen a Western man use before- He LEFT ME ALONE. There was no hounding, no creepy side-eye, no following me around the bar. We chatted, he bought me a drink, we went on our way. Wow, what a concept, right? It's

quite nice, I have to say.

The night ended on the rooftop of an acquaintance's apartment building with some sparklers and mixed drinks. When it became too cold for even drunken slobs like ourselves to stay outside, I walked home as all of the street merchants were setting up shop for the day.

I should let it be known that I NEVER partied this way back in the states. I don't know if it's the influence of all the foreigners or what, but I've definitely changed in that aspect. It's also really nice to completely bowl and sing and eat and drink everything away for a night every so often after a full week at work, which I have affectionately dubbed The Fuck Parade of Cirque de Grab Ass. No, things haven't improved. Yes, we're still all kinds of lacking morale. No, I'm not quitting my job. Yes, I really like it here.

Well, loved ones, I have a jam-packed week ahead of me to prepare for- culminating in OPEN CLASS at the end of the week. Yay, my students' judgmental parents get to come into my classroom and stare at me the last two days of the week. Should charge them for tickets at the door. No one gets a free peek at this circus' Freak Show ;)
                                                                   ~N.

Work Evaluations and Inedible Tofu

   This week I finished my second full week as an English teacher! Different than the first, this week came with no less than 7 evaluations, 5 of which being surprises. For the most part I walked away satisfied with my evaluations and the feedback/discussions I've had with my observers, but myself and the other foreign teachers are having some similar grievances across the board. The biggest of which happens to be the fact that we're continuously being fed conflicting information. One day we'll have to come in to work early for a meeting on the importance of the students filling out every detail of their in-class workbooks, and the next time we're evaluated we'll be told that the foreign teachers are meant to be a source of fun and entertainment and not to be so heavy-handed with the class material. Apparently this game of micromanaging grab-ass is new to my co-workers who have been here longer, but no one appreciates it much. The saddest part is that when I arrived (barely a month ago) my co-workers all praised one of the other foreigner teachers on his positive attitude and optimism...and lately he's been the one to push back the most, coming purposefully late and unprepared to mock teaching evaluations, arguing against criticism he gets from our boss, and just generally not being the source of good energy he was just weeks ago.

   The good news is that I've gotten settled to the point that work is just one small part of my life :)

   On Monday/Wednesday/Friday I have Hapkido in the morning, and I'm very proud to say that at the end of April or beginning of May I will be testing for my next belt! It might seem kind of sudden, but I am the only white belt in the class so I get a lot of one-on-one instruction so I can learn more quickly. Doesn't mean I'll necessarily PASS the test, but I'll give it my best shot.

   Mondays and Wednesdays, immediately after Hapkido, I have Korean class. The best thing about studying Korean is that I'm getting the courage to use the language with people. For the first week or so I'd stumble through a situation when I knew very well a couple words or phrases that would smooth things over. Maybe it's fear of making a mistake, but sitting in class and actively learning gave me the confidence to start immersing myself in the language I hear and see all day, every day anyway. After only a week of lessons I've learned: how to read meat labels to figure out what kind of meat it is (most meat comes pre-chopped so pork and chicken look deceptively similar), tell people how long I've been in Korea/talk about units of time (yesterday, today, tomorrow, a week/month/year from now/ago, etc), and other helpful things like the words for "and", "however", and "but". Of course I've also learned some Korean in the classroom from my students (words like "homework", "sit down", and "SOMEONE FARTED!"- hey, I teach elementary-aged boys, what do you expect?)

   The biggest update from this week of my life would have to be 두부 (Dubu, meaning Tofu). I have a great time every day when I go out, but the apartment is far too quiet and lonely. So, along with one of my co-workers, I went out and got a new pet- a hamster! He's a baby Winter White, only 6 weeks old, and I can't even BEGIN to talk about how awesome he is. Typically hamsters are a lot of work to hand train. Unlike with a dog or cat, if you want a small rodent that does anything YouTube worthy, you have to put hours and hours into it. I don't know if I lucked out or if the department store I bought him from has a private breeder instead of a breeding mill as a supplier, but he's already hand trained! When I tried to lay my hand in the cage just to let him sniff it he hopped right in and up my arm to sit on my shoulder. He's only actively awake about 45 minutes a day since he's so young but he's had no problems sleeping on me both nights I've had him. I even got cheek licks today! Doesn't he look like a little lump of tofu?!

                                                                                                                       ~N.

"Beef Up, Fish Down"

   One of the other foreign teachers used the term "beef up" while speaking to one of his high-level classes. After explaining what it meant in slang-terms, one of the students proceeded to ask if English speakers also say "fish down". Not only amusing, I think it's the perfect idiom for my first week as a fully functioning member of Korean society. Every day - no, ever HOUR - brings so much change on you and you never can be sure what you're going to get. Of course things are normalizing as time goes on, but the adjustment game is still 50/50

   With 29 classes I have 29 different classroom dynamics to discover and work with. On Thursday a student in a class told me to go fuck myself, but on Friday the class followed me into the office demanding I come back so they don't have to work with the Korean co-teacher. Fish down, beef up.

   I go to my first local foreigner meet up on a Saturday night and find two young women my age both living in town (one of which in my building) and make fast friends. But I also spend the entirety of the night dodging a middle-aged man from Southern USA who referred to me as "Princess" and couldn't keep his hands to himself. Beef up, fish down.

   After such a shaky first day, I'm happy to say that I found myself some hobbies outside of school. I started taking Korean classes Monday and Wednesday mornings. But more than that...I've also registered for hapkido on Monday/Wednesday/Friday mornings the hour just before Korean. The teacher and location are one and the same, exercise can't hurt, and I feel like I'll have something to show for my time spent here. If I leave Korea after this year, if I move to a new city and start a new contract, I'll always have whichever belt I'll have earned to look at and say "I worked at this while I was living in Changwon". I can actually feel all of my close friends and family holding their breath waiting for news of a broken bone or face plant. Don't worry guys, I got this.

Just to spruce things up a little bit around here, how about some pictures?!

This is a picture of the first full, proper meal I had in Korea. It's not quite 삼겹살 (samgyeopsal) (pork belly) because I believe we ended up with beef, but it was DELISH. You grill it yourself at the table and have an assortment of things to dip it in, everything from oil and salt to spicy pepper paste called 고추장 (gochujang).

The view from my apartment. 롯데마트 (Lotte Mart) is kind of like a Wal-Mart Supercenter. From what I've noticed, Lotte seems to have a hand in the production of just about everything in Korea. Really interesting is that two Wednesdays out of the month, Lotte Mart closes so people have no choice to shop at smaller places. I guess it's some kind of law that protects small businesses.



   It's true everything is still new and exciting for me, but I feel like I'm finally getting a hold of my life here. I've done normal things like laundry and grocery shopping and taking a taxi, and it keeps getting easier and easier. I do, however, have to prepare mock teaching lessons to present to my coworkers this week. Not only that, but I have to be up in the morning for hapkido, Korean, and work! Gotta beef up on my sleep or this fish'll be down all day tomorrow.

My First Day Teaching!

 I'll spare you all the details about my few days living at a Love Hotel (which is, as it sounds, a hotel for the express purpose of having sex in and leaving), or the hospital visit to make sure I didn't have AIDS or a drug addiction (I don't), and jump right into what I came to Korea for in the first place-

Teaching!

   It was...new. Since I'm the only one with any background in English, they gave me the most classes to do- 29. And since I'm the new teacher, I had someone sitting in most of my classes. I started out with a class of 4-year-olds, and I'd say my oldest group is about 14. I have to say that I felt like I went through the day running with my head cut off.

The youngest class protested homework because the teacher before me broke the rules and didn't assign them any.  (Important to know is that the parents EXPECT homework and have and will call the school to ask what it is or complain if their child came home without any).

One of my classes DID NOT want to talk unless called upon by name (I was assured that it's just the age group).

And of course the one class where I was left by myself I totally rocked it (if I do say so myself).

I know it's my first day and I should expect some growing pains, but I walked home just feeling like maybe I'm not cut out to be a teacher. The person observing me would take over class at will. I got through all of the work set for the class, the kids behaved for me and did their work, and no one came to me with any sort of complaints but...I just feel like I didn't meet my own expectations. I know that when I watch the other teachers I'm looking at people with more experience who have been in the game longer, but I can't help but compare myself to them.

Oh and in the last 15 minutes of the day my boss said "10 minutes~" and walked away....which apparently meant "I want to see you in my office". So she waited in her office for all that time and then stopped me when I was leaving to ask why I didn't go see her? Miscommunication for the win!

I really hope that I adjust or am doing better than I think because I really do kind of like it here. I'm not the type of person that came to Korea to vacation for a year and just happen to HAVE to teach during the week, I've really always wanted to be an English Teacher. Hopefully tomorrow is easier!

   ~N

So I'm Technically In Korea...

   Anyone who's known me for more than ten minutes knows that I'm a magnet for bad luck and bodily harm. And soon after that they learn that I'm also consistent. So when I showed up to the airport at 4am Friday morning and was told my entire itinerary had been re-booked a day due to weather, everyone was angry but no one was surprised.

   Attempt two has proven to be much more successful even if it has been with a lot more stress. After my Western flights were all changed I learned the Asian carriers had not re-booked because those flights were still a go. I thought things would work out as United was awesome and brought me all the way to Incheon. But I found out that I'd still need a way to get to my town from there. After the travel agent my school hired told me there was literally nothing for me to do but wait an entire week, I got on the phone myself and got a free flight for the morning after my arrival in Incheon. The only catch being that I had to stay the night in the airport, which is what I'm almost done doing now.

   The hardest part of the trip was, by far, the 13-hour flight from Chicago to Narita, Japan. I was sat in the aisle section, in-between a Japanese businessman on one side and a Korean businessman on the other. We weren't unfriendly to each other, but no one really spoke the entire flight. I assume this was because we were all basking in our own misery at being stuck in a rocket-propelled air bus for an ungodly amount of time. At one point the Japanese business man opened a soda and a TIIIINY amount of spray got on my arm. He actually pushed my hand and napkin away to dab at it himself. Odd, yet politely.

   I was a bit disappointed I didn't get to see anything in Narita while I was there. Japan's kind of known for having unique, strange things but the strangest thing I saw was the toilet with an arm rest full of amenity functions, including: a bidet, dryer, music, and deodorizer. I'm sure there was a lot of the airport I missed staying as close to my gate as I did.

And now I'm in Incheon. Incheon airport is very modern - and very empty through the night. Another American, a soldier here for three weeks of training, got similarly stuck so we spent our time together. We went to the airport's 24 hour restaurant where I embarrassed myself asking for a drink behind a glass that opened on MY side and he ordered chili that came back looking like anything but. We're both a little concerned our bags will have gone AWOL or MIA by the time our flight arrives, but everyone on staff we've spoken to has been very reassuring that they've got everything under control. And not having to worry about lugging two 50 pound suitcases around made it possible for me to relax, Skype home, and take a nap sprawled out on a bench in as much of an undignified manner as possible.

I have to admit I was a little worried when I arrived. I hear stories daily from other foreigners in Korea about being stared at, pet, or propositioned. So when I didn't see a single other foreigner waiting for the train from the gate to Arrivals and Baggage Claim I figured I'd stick out. And I did, but not in a bad way. I ended up waiting for the train to Arrivals with a group of Korean women about my age who were also teachers. They asked how I was from and where I was going. And then I learned my first full phrase since arriving here:

                            열차이 듣 도착압니다. (yeolcha ii deud dochakhamnida)

Which means "The Train Is Arriving Soon".

And speaking of, I should be getting ready to get my boarding pass for my last flight! Talk to you soon!

"The Time Has Come," The Walrus Said...

   In four more days I will be boarding the first of three planes that will bring me to my new life in South Korea. As this is my first adventure involving a time difference so big it will most likely interfere with communicating with people back home, I thought a little blog was in order. Korea is a grand 13 hours ahead of and 7,000 miles away from my hometown of Upstate New York. This, of course, makes my time living in England (8 hours ahead, 3,000 miles away) look like kiddie pool fun-times at Gymboree.

   I wish I had something interesting or insightful to share at this point, but the fun hasn't even started yet! You can check back every Monday morning (NY time) for stories or pictures or any other kind of confirmation that I'm okay (and I will be- so unclench).

   I will say that I didn't expect leaving to be this hard. Saying goodbye to friends/family/coworkers feels so much different this time around than any other time I've gone off chasing the wind. This move seemed like such a far away concept until now that it's hit everyone like a ton of bricks and we're just realizing things like, "hey, I should probably drop in and give you a hug" and "why aren't I all packed? I'm leaving in less than a week!"

   There is still packing and hugging to do so things shall be cut short this time around. Next week's entry will be coming to you from all the way in Changwon City!

                                                                               ~ N.